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Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. Concerns about his health began this summer and grew this month when he visited a Tokyo hospital for two weeks in a row for unspecified medical checkups. He is now on a new treatment that requires intravenous injections, he said. While there is some improvement, there is no guarantee that it will cure his condition, so he decided to quit after treatment on Monday, he said.
“It’s heartbreaking to have to quit my job before I achieve my goals,” Abe said on Friday, mentioning his failure to resolve the issue of the Japanese kidnapped years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia and a review of the resignation. to the war in Japan. Constitution.
He said his health problem was under control until earlier this year, but was found to have worsened in June when he underwent an annual checkup.
“Faced with the disease and the treatment, as well as the pain of the lack of physical strength … I decided that I should not stay as prime minister when I am no longer able to meet the expectations of the people with confidence,” Abe said. at a press conference.
In a country once known to its short-lived prime ministers, the departure marks the end of an unusual era of stability in which the Japanese leader forged strong ties with President Donald Trump, even as Abe’s ultra-nationalism irritated the public. the Koreas and China. As it pulled Japan out of recession, the economy has been hit again by the coronavirus pandemic, and Abe has failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the pacifist US-drafted constitution due to scant public support.
Abe said he achieved a stronger security alliance between Japan and the United States and the first visit of a serving American president to the atomic bombed city of Hiroshima. It also helped Tokyo win the right to host the 2020 Olympics by promising that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it was not.
Recently, “the impact of the coronavirus on the economy was a blow to Abe, who was stuck at home and without the opportunity to make any achievements or show his friendship with Trump, and was cornered,” said Koichi Nakano, international. professor of politics at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Abe continued to strengthen Japan’s defense capacity to respond to the needs of the United States, Nakano said. “For those who believe that the Japan-US alliance is paramount, that was their greatest achievement,” he said. But Abe swept his expanded defense policy and other contentious issues into parliament, repeatedly neglecting public opinion, Nakano said.
Trump paid tribute to his “great friend” Abe and told reporters on Air Force One that he was shocked to learn of his resignation.
“We had a great relationship. And I feel very bad for him. Because he must be very severe. Look, let him go, he loves his country so much and that he leaves, I can’t imagine what it is.” it is. He is a great gentleman and therefore I am only showing him my utmost respect, “Trump said.
Abe is a blue-blooded politician who was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and a greater role in international affairs.
Abe, whose term ends in September 2021, is expected to remain in office until parliament elects and formally approves a new party leader, a process that is expected to take several weeks.
Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006 at age 52, but his first overly nationalistic term ended abruptly a year later due to his health.
In December 2012, Abe returned to power, prioritizing economic measures over his nationalist agenda. He won six national elections and built a solid grip on power, strengthening the defense role and capacity of Japan and its security alliance with the United States. It also intensified patriotic education in schools and raised Japan’s international profile.
Abe became Japan’s longest-serving prime minister for consecutive days in office on Monday, eclipsing the record held by Eisaku Sato, his great-uncle, who served 2,798 days from 1964 to 1972.
But his second visit to the hospital on Monday accelerated speculation and political maneuvering toward a post-Abe regime.
Ulcerative colitis causes inflammation and sometimes polyps in the intestines. People with the condition can have a normal life expectancy, but severe cases can involve life-threatening complications.
After his recent visits to the hospital were reported, senior officials in Abe’s cabinet and the ruling party said he was overworked and urgently needed rest.
His health concerns came as his support ratings plummeted due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its severe impact on the economy, in addition to a series of political scandals, including his own.
There are a host of politicians eager to replace Abe.
Shigeru Ishiba, a 63-year-old warmongering former defense minister and Abe’s arch rival, is the next favorite leader in media polls, although he is less popular within the ruling party. A low-profile former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Taro Kono, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, and Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of anti-coronavirus measures, are widely mentioned in the Japanese media as possible successors.
Abe was often overshadowed in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, a former conservative in the ruling party who is viewed as a possible prime ministerial candidate by some. But first she would have to be elected to parliament to compete for the highest position.
Analysts say no major policy changes are expected, whoever succeeds Abe, although Japan may return to a short-lived era of leadership.
The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stage as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving doors” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.
When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and lift its economy out of deflationary stagnation with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.
Perhaps Abe’s biggest regret was his inability to fulfill a goal long cherished by his grandfather and himself of formally rewriting the pacifist constitution. Abe and his ultra-conservative supporters view the US-drafted constitution as a humiliating legacy of Japan’s defeat in World War II.
It also failed to achieve its goal of resolving several unfinished legacies during the war, including normalizing ties with North Korea, resolving inter-island disputes with neighbors, and signing a peace treaty with Russia that formally ended its hostilities. In the Second World War.
Abe said he will focus on his treatment for now and “continue his political activity and support a new administration as a legislator.”
